GLC Soup Series ~ Soup Two: Caldo Verde

If you've been following this blog at all, you probably know by now that I am a fan of kale. Well... to be more precise, I try to eat a good amount of it since it's a super food, and when it's prepared the right way, it's quite tasty. I find that kale is a perfect green for soups since it's so hearty and even after it's been in the broth a while it still maintains some texture (unlike spinach, for example). So for the second soup in the series, I decided to include one where kale is a major component. 

Caldo Verde is a Portuguese soup (it's literal translation is "green broth"). It's traditionally made with linguiça (a smoked, cured sausage), but finding it around here was not so easy, so I substituted it with smoked kielbasa made at one of my favorite places in all of Schenectady, Garofalo's. If you're from around the capital region, and don't know this place, I highly suggest a visit (if you're a fan of Italian food or fresh meats, anyway). They've been in business for ages and their products and service are the reason why. After speaking with one of the sisters (an owner), she suggested I use chorizo or the andouille as a linguiça subsitute--which I agreed might be more appropriate replacement sausages--but after I explained that I can only handle so much "heat" from spice, she agreed that the smoked kielbasa was my best bet. 

So here we go, with Gigi's version of....

Caldo Verde

Ingredients:

• 2-3 TB olive oil 
• 1/2 to 3/4 lb linguiça or chorizo or andouille or smoked kielbasa, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (that's at least a lb pictured above, I didn't use the whole thing)
• 1 medium yellow onion, sliced or chopped
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed or minced
• 3-5 (about 1 lb) russet or red potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
• 6-8 cups of water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 lb kale, washed with stems removed and cut into small, bite-sized pieces

Before I go into the steps, please keep in mind that getting good quality sausage is key. You can use one of the supermarket brands for your sausage, but chances are you will end up with a greasy layer of fat on top of your soup, which isn't particularly appetizing. So, I want to make sure it is understood before you make this and decide that it's disgusting--the quality of your ingredients is what can make or break a meal. The majority of sausages I've gotten from Garofalo's are very lean, and there was hardly any fat melting off this keilbasa.

Ok... now on with the cooking.

First heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pot (I use my dutch oven) on medium-high heat for approximately 3 minutes. Then add and brown the sausage. Once the sausage is done, transfer it with the spoon to a bowl or plate.

Add more olive oil to the pan if necessary (and let it get hot), then add the garlic and onions. Sauté them until the onions are translucent and then add the potatoes. Toss the potatoes around the pan a bit, but just so they absorb some of the garlic and onion flavoring, not so they get brown. Then add the water and salt, and cook the potatoes until very tender--about 15 minutes.  

Once the potatoes have softened, mash a couple of them within the soup with the spoon or a fork--this adds a little creaminess to the texture of the soup. Then add the kale and let the soup simmer for about 5-7 minutes. 

Once the kale wilts into the soup and appears to be cooked through, add the sausage and stir. Let the soup simmer with all the ingredients for about five minutes or so to make sure the sausage is heated though and the flavors come together nicely. Then it's ready to eat!

For a soup that is so simple, and has so few ingredients, the flavors and textures can't be beat. The smokey and spicy flavor of the sausage complements the bitter greens, while the potatoes add a rich comforting starch with an almost creamy texture. If desired, you could sprinkle a little grated parm on top of this soup, but I don't think it's necessary. And though dipping a nice piece of bread or some crackers might be your normal accoutrements for soup, I don't think this one requires any additions.

You can store leftovers in your refrigerator for up to a week, or freeze it for longer, but I doubt it'll last that long...  I have to admit, over the course of five days, I made it through this entire batch (about 2 quarts). No taste-testers or even frozen leftovers, this soup was all mine. I had it for lunch or dinner each day, and it was gone before I knew it! 

GLC Soup Series ~ Soup One: Carrot Ginger

"Soup! We've got all kinds of soup!"

This was/is a common thing my mom would cheerfully and encouragingly say to me and my siblings when we were looking for a quick dinner. Growing up, my parents' house was (and is, still) full of a variety of canned soups. Rarely, though, did any of them appeal to us. Don't get me wrong, if my mom made soup for dinner (from a can or otherwise), we'd eat it, it just wasn't always the most appetizing food--especially because her homemade food was/is always so much better.

Anyway, this series is not going to be about soup in a can. It's going to be about soups made from scratch. And though they take some effort, they won't be so labor intensive that you'd probably prefer opening a can of Campbell's (and I admit, I still love their high fructose and sodium laden tomato soup on occasion--especially with grilled cheese).

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The first soup of this series is a carrot ginger soup. Carrots and ginger pair pretty well together, and carrot ginger soup is relatively common. However, it wasn't until about seven years ago on a chilly early spring night, that I had one I loved. It was at a small and pricey French restaurant, so soup was one of the few things I was comfortable ordering there--and I'm glad I did.  Following that night, I searched for recipes and began experimenting with the ones I found until I finally made a carrot ginger soup that I think is just as good as the one from that French restaurant. If you decide to, you can just use vegetable stock (no chicken stock) to make it vegetarian, just don't omit the butter to make it vegan, I can't make any promises about this recipe if you do....

Gigi's Carrot Ginger Soup

Ingredients (Makes About 2 Quarts):
4 Tb unsalted butter
1 lg yellow onion, chopped
2 Tb minced or finely chopped fresh ginger
3 cloves crushed or minced garlic
4 cups of chicken stock
3 cups vegetable stock or broth
1 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 lbs carrots, peeled and chopped into 1/2 in. pieces
Salt and pepper to taste

Optional ingredients for serving:
Fresh lemon juice
Snipped chives or parsley
Olive oil
Sour Cream

Begin by melting the butter on medium heat in a large heavy-bottomed stock pot. Add chopped onions, garlic, and ginger, and saute for 15-20 minutes or until aromatic and onion is translucent. Try not to let the mixture brown as it will create a bitter flavor.

Add white wine and let it cook down a bit to burn off most of the alcohol (3-5 minutes), then add the stock, broth, and carrots. Heat until boiling, then reduce the heat and let simmer uncovered until carrots are tender (about 35-45 minutes).

Once carrots are tender (can be easily crushed with a fork or spoon), turn off the heat. Using either a hand (immersion) blender or a food processor, puree the soup until smooth.  Note: If you are using a food processor, be certain to let the soup cool a bit, puree it in small stages, and leave the shoot open, otherwise you may have a very hot explosion (and subsequent burns and a mess) on your hands... or face or entire kitchen. I used a hand (immersion) blender, which works best and allows you to pretty much serve the soup immediately. I love my immersion blender... someday I'll probably write a post just about that.

Anyway, once the soup is well pureed, you can season with a tablespoon or so of lemon juice (in the whole pot), and serve it with a sprinkle of chives (as I did), parsley, sour cream, or a dash of good olive oil--and any combination you please. I actually really like it with a small dollop of sour cream and than a dash of chive oil on top.

The soup is rich and filling without being very heavy. It is the kind of soup that can work well served as the star of a meal, particularly if it's served with  a good piece of crusty (sourdough, maybe) bread, or even a salad made with mesclun greens, apples or pears, and blue cheese.

My usual taste-tester, Andrea, had a cup of it after I made it and she said, "I think this is the best carrot ginger soup I've ever had." Granted, she seems to like most of what I cook, but I agree with her. :)

Bon Appétit! 

Short cuts: though I recommend fresh ginger, you can use the pre-crushed stuff that comes in a jar (not the dried, masticated stuff) to make this soup just be sure to use an extra tablespoon or so, and to make the prep a little quicker, you can always used some baby cut carrots (chopped in half length-wise) since they're already peeled and washed. 

Put a Stock in It!

I love this time of year. It's my favorite kind of weather and the changing, colorful leaves makes everything seem so cheerful to me. The other day while on a bike ride, it felt somewhat magical when the wind picked up and I rode through a parade of little yellow leaves falling from the trees--even though my nose was running and I was looking forward to getting a warm beverage once I was finished. Of course, typically autumn means cool, often rainy, days become the norm and we seek comfort from the chill that sometimes gets into our bones through hot, flavorful foods. Many of those foods, particularly the soups we tend to make this time of year, include the use of stocks (chicken, veggie, etc.). You can buy stock at the grocery store, of course, but why not make it yourself, particularly if you have the ingredients on hand and they may otherwise not get used.

For example, ever buy a rotisserie chicken or bake a whole chicken at home? What do you do with the leftover bones/carcass? I know, "carcass" isn't the most appetizing word, but if you can get past it, I highly suggest taking what's left of the bird (especially if there's some meat left on it), and making a stock with it. I did just that recently.

I used my slow cooker, so making this stock was unbelievably easy. If you have one I would suggest using it as well, because other than maybe stirring it occasionally, you can just let the stock simmer all day and not worry about keeping an eye on it. However, it's just as easy to make on the stove as well.

Gina's Chicken Stock 

Ingredients:
1 medium-sized leftover chicken carcass from a rotisserie (baked works fine, too)
3-4 carrots (washed, but no need to peel them)
3-4 celery ribs (again just washed, no need to trim)
1-2 onions, skin peeled and cut in half
1-2 bay leaves (if small, use two)
3-4 whole cloves garlic (peeled)
1 tsp whole peppercorns
1-2 tsp of sea salt (or more to taste, but be careful not to over salt)
1/2-1 cup fresh parsley (washed, but again... no need to chop)
2 -3 quarts of water

Another item needed: a good mesh strainer

Now, this may be hard to believe, but all you need to do, is put everything in the pot (slow cooker or large stove top pot) and cover it with water then set it on low heat, put the cover on, and leave it for the next 6-10 hours. You want the stock to simmer* for the entire time, so you can stop to stir it occasionally, but other than that, you can just leave it alone until you're ready for the only (not really) challenging part of making the stock: straining it and storage.

After about three hours my house was beginning to smell of chicken soup (the good homemade kind, not the ring o' noodle kind). And this is what the stock looked like:

I let it cook for another four hours, though. I wanted to get the most out of my stock, and the longer it simmers the more the flavor develops. But after seven hours, I was ready to use some of the stock, so it was time for straining it.

Now, if I didn't have a slight tendency to be klutzy, I probably could have picked up the ceramic insert from my slow cooker and poured the whole thing into the large bowl over the strainer, but I didn't want to chance having the stock go everywhere--so I chose the safe and easy way to strain it, even if it was a bit more time consuming.

Using a pair of tongs, I removed all the large items from the stock and placed them in the strainer over the bowl. (I wanted to make sure to get as much liquid as I could out of this stock, so I didn't want to toss the large pieces of chicken and veggies).

Once all the larger items were removed and sufficiently strained of all liquid, I tossed the items away. Then I started pouring the liquid through the strainer using a large ladle. Because chickens have some tiny bones and using a slow cooker makes everything fall apart, I actually strained the stock twice to make sure I didn't end up with any "debris" in my stock. But after I was done, I ended up with just over two quarts of richly flavored stock. I froze a little more than half of it and put the rest in the refrigerator to use throughout the week.

So simple and easy, and it's a great way to save or get the most out of your money. I'll without a doubt be doing this again.

*If you have it on the stove make sure it doesn't start to come to a boil, otherwise you could end up with a bit of mess and a lot of liquid loss, which you want to avoid so the stock retains all the intense flavors (that's the point of a stock after all).